on making a living from other peoples' difficulties

July 9, 2020. Day .

I used to work at a world-famous branding firm where all our sites were "Internet Explorer 6 first". Meaning that was the browser we had to target first, before making the sites work on more modern, frankly better browsers. We all hated working that way. But then I realized: "Thanks to Microsoft's bad decisions and market share, I can command a much higher price for my work, because nobody else has the patience to bother with this trash. So thanks, Mr. Gates."

I still get frustrated working on drag-and-drop Wordpress sites and stuff like that, but I have to remember: if people didn't rely so much on these hard-to-operate systems (that claim to solve problems that they don't solve), they might not need me anymore. It's kind of hard to keep billing for something if you built it right the first time.

I will immediately add that I don't work that way when it's up to me. I like building for simplicity and ease of use, and client satisfaction. (That's why my site looks like it does: no "bells and whistles". Just content.) But my happiness and satisfaction don't always result in recurring billable hours. So I'm trying to also enjoy working on the sites that have complexity for the sake of complexity. They're good for my bank account.

I'm not talking about Wordpress in general. Wordpress is good, if you need what it offers. Many sites that use Wordpress don't need what it offers, so it's kind of a waste for them. I'm talking mostly about drag-and-drop frameworks like WP Bakery (formerly Visual Composer) and X Theme that claim to make Wordpress development "a breeze--no coding necessary!" That claim is never true in my experience. These kinds of sites end up costing their adopters way more than a more simple site with some basic coding would. I'm happy to fix them, though.

Internet Explorer 6 Wordpress